White Plains CitizeNetReporter - <i>King Komments:</i> Overnight Paid Parking Only Solution.

KING KOMMENTS. By City Councilperson William King. October 9, 2002: After Monday evening consideration of the paid overnight parking trial proposal for Old Mamaroneck Road, Councilman William King sent WPCNR these comments:

I want to let you know that I was told by the City and the counsel to State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, Steve Otis (who is also the mayor of Rye), that a state law must be enacted specific to a municipality to allow permit parking on streets. Steve Otis advised that for some reason the batting average for getting state legislative approval of overnight on-street parking permits is very low and if approved, usually takes a very long time. He gave me a copy of proposed legislation from Sen. Oppenheimer's office for the Village of Mamaroneck.

He shared this with me more than a year ago and I immediately passed this along to the Mayor's office and the city's corporation counsel and suggested it be pursued, with the idea that if it took a long time, we should at least get the ball rolling - and maybe if we joined with one or more other municipalities from Westchester that were asking for this, we would have a better chance of passage in Albany.

When I didn't get a response the first time, I sent it around again, again with no response. So, to my knowledge, the administration has done absolutely nothing on this and they have had it for a long time - already more than a year has been wasted.

I think we should go ahead with the multi-space meters for the 111 paid overnight, on-street spaces (spending $30K for these meters seems a lot more preferable than spending $2.7m for a new parking garage).

Will personally patrol.

I appreciate the Highlands Neighborhood's concern about spillover and I will personally police adjacent streets in the middle of the night many nights a week to make sure this is not happening and, if I see any violations, bring them to the immediate attention of the Police Dept. for ticketing and towing.

By the way, the $2.7m garage Bud's (Nicoletti) figure, located on the old railroad right-of-way (Greenway) behind the stores and post office on Mamaroneck Ave., would be less convenient (and I think would be less utilized) than decking over the Shapham Place lot.

Although this would be years in the future, realistically, as I go into below, decking over the Shapham Place lot may also provide an opportunity to put a playfield on top of the structure for the otherwise very cramped Mamaroneck Avenue School (where my daughter goes - I should know - I also know about the crowding the few nights a year there are night-time school-wide activities at the school - part of this problem is due to the Shapham lot behind the school being filled .... with night-time neighborhood resident parkers - if they parked on the street near their buildings, there would be more space in the Shapham lot for the parents of schoolkids).

Parents should also be informed by Principal Hugh McKiernan (a great principal, by the way) of the availability at night of spots south of Shapham on Mamaroneck Avenue as another close-by space to park - they are often totally empty at night.

Serious Money on Concepts

I should add that the City has spent serious money on conceptual designs for a deck or garage over the Waller-Maple parking lot Downtown which will cost millions. (The Council hasn't heard anything about this proposal lately - those conceptual designs should be done by now.)

Thousands on City Hall

Also, the City has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not a million $'s by now, on a proposed City Hall modernization/expansion project (which the last I heard was supposed to cost $15m +/-). Also now on the priority list is fixing up the Dellwood property pronto which we just acquired (also the D'Elia property which we paid big bucks for a year ago) and numerous other capital needs too long to mention.

So, it is not like the City does not have other needs and a $2.7m parking deck off of Mamaroneck Ave. is down the list.

It's one thing to say a deck should be built or overnight permits should be pursued - it's another to move on these things. Many of us and the residents of the Old Mamaroneck Road area are tired of waiting.

Councilman William King


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